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About the expert: Sergey Yakupov, telescope.show.
It seems that we have just experienced the apocalypse in reality, but the minds of serial writers and showrunners have always been occupied with this topic.
Looking through all sorts of lists of the best (and worst too) TV shows of our time, two of the most popular ways to destroy the human race can be distinguished: alien invasion and viruses. In third place are natural phenomena.
We have collected five not the most obvious, but no less interesting series, where scriptwriters compete with each other in how to competently and beautifully exterminate humanity, very rarely resorting to popular methods.
1. Newfoundland
Destruction method: suicide
About the series: Steven Spielberg’s project turned out to be extremely non-viable (like the population of the Earth). It lasted only one season, but was closed because the ratings were lower than expected, and for 2011 the cost of producing the series was too high (Fox spent $ 13 million on 14 episodes).
Plot: The land is so polluted that it has become almost uninhabitable. Then scientists found a way to move humanity to the distant past, to the era of dinosaurs, where earthlings will get a second chance to build a civilization, having learned the lessons from the first attempt. The story of 13 episodes of a single season revolves around the family of a police officer who served time on the old Earth for the illegitimate birth of another child (by law, you can only have two). He and his family by hook or by crook get into Terra Nova and find themselves embroiled in the struggle of the inhabitants with the outside world (dinosaurs periodically attack the city) and with internal demons.
On the subject: The documentary series Life After People talks about what would happen to the planet if people disappeared right now:
2. “Collapsed Heaven”
Destruction method: extraterrestrials
About the series: another project that Steven Spielberg had a hand in. The series stayed on the air for five seasons (from 2011 to 2015) and caused polar opinions among viewers. Someone scolded him terribly, and someone, on the contrary, considered him one of the best apocalypse series of recent times. For five seasons, we got solid survival action and a few allusions to Spielberg films (for example, the sounds of aliens moving are sounds from Jurassic Park).
Plot: The earth was attacked by aliens. After six months, people got tired of this and they began to unite in a group called the “2nd Massachusetts Regiment” (in honor of the military formation during the North American Civil War). This group moves from city to city and finds new allies there in the fight against aliens.
On the subject: “Unruly Earth” – a series about how people and aliens live together on a torn planet:
3. “Zoo-Apocalypse”
Destruction method: wild animals
About the series: the project was extremely popular in 2015-16 in the USA, but did not go to the Europeans at all. In Holland, it was moved to a secondary channel from central after only four episodes.
Plot: A scientist is trying to figure out several killings of people by animals. Having immersed himself in this topic, he realizes that this is not an accident and not a “one-time action”. It is nature that wants to purify itself, and has chosen man as a superfluous element. The number and quality of killings are on the rise, and the animals are beginning to behave too intelligently, as if they are acting according to a premeditated plan.
On the subject: at the end of December 2020, the premiere of the Y series should take place, where animals (or rather, one monkey) will help a person survive on the planet after the apocalypse. There is no trailer yet.
4. “You, me and the Apocalypse”
Destruction method: comet and laughter
About the series: a true British comedy from Sky, set in the same town of Slough as the original British The Office (which was later re-shot in the US).
Plot: it all starts like a bearded joke. What happens if a priest, a prisoner and a bank clerk end up in the same bunker to watch on TV how the world is approaching disaster? And it will be quite funny, even though they don’t have to sit in the bunker for so long, because a comet is flying towards the Earth, capable of erasing all life. And it’s a pity that the series lasted only one season, because watching, for example, Rob Lowe is a separate pleasure.
On the subject: “And Now for the Apocalypse”, a very strange and funny comedy about the world being killed by drugs and promiscuous sex with anyone (including aliens):
5. “The Last Train”
Destruction method: asteroid
About the series: a British mini-series from the late nineties that starts off rather cheaply but then quickly builds up to quite a curious spectacle.
Plot: several people on a train to Sheffield find themselves frozen after a tank car with a strange gas explodes next to their carriage. After 52 years, they thawed out and saw the world destroyed by a meteorite, finding themselves in it one on one with wild animals and feral people. There is no trailer, but the series can be found online.
On the subject: Snowpiercer is a brand new Netflix project about a train that takes a group of survivors of a failed climate experiment around the world by rail:
And as a bonus for connoisseurs…
Two very bad series, where the authors kill humanity by the very existence of these projects.
TV series: “Effects”
Destruction method: anything at all, as long as it works
About the series: if you survive the first episode, then everything will go in the spirit of “so bad it’s even good.” The series aired for one season. A total of 13 one-hour episodes were filmed.
Plot: apparently, our civilization so angered the gods that they decided to act for sure and sent everything that was possible to the planet in general: hurricanes, meteor showers, earthquakes, plague. But at some point, even this seemed to the gods not enough. And they added a cherry on top of that apocalyptic cake: supernatural monsters.
On the subject: the Danish TV series Rain is so bad that nothing can save it (and rain kills people there, if you haven’t guessed it yet):
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